Image-Guided Therapy: Evolution and Breakthrough [A Look At]

Many questions remain open in most of the physics-based therapies that we have have been shortly reviewed. All are based on principles discovered a long time ago, and advances are still far from being sufficient. Clinical studies do not clarify enough how and when they should be used in first intention or sequenced over time. In other words, patients must be cared today and not tomorrow. There is no doubt that these therapies offer many opportunities. New probe and transducer design and device miniaturization through microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology will converge, with the parallel evolution of medical robots, imaging modalities, and drug delivery advances. Almost all, if not all, physical therapeutic systems described here are basically image guided and can be merged into the medical robot frame. Dual-sensing and actuating (or activating) devices are in progress, and even if there is a long way from the initial concepts to clinical applications (with inherent quality control and traceability), the trend toward more efficient, less-invasive care will support the efforts made in the field. In parallel, basic research opens new windows. For instance, terahertz (THz) imaging (with a frequency range lying between the infrared and microwave regions of the spectrum) is just emerging as a biomedical modality. We do not know if, in the future, it may not have therapeutic applications.